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Wednesday, August 05, 2009

VISI, Minnesota’s largest data center services and managed hosting provider, wants to help business owners understand the difference between merely surviving in an economic downturn and thriving, so starting today a new white paper titled “Thriving in an Economic Downturn: Focus on What You do Best; Outsource the Rest” is available for complimentary download at www.visi.com/whitepapers.

Authored by Ralph Awad, VISI’s director of hosting services, the 4-page white paper points out the six most common reasons that business owners cling to when justifying the money they spend on IT. These reasons, which often become mistakes, are control issues over IT infrastructures; feeling too small to outsource; aversion to change and risk; budget restraints and sunken costs; too much trust in the internal team and fear of staff layoffs by outsourcing. Awad breaks these arguments down in a way that any business can relate to and offers ideas for achieving IT success more efficiently and affordably long-term.

“The smart way to build a competitive advantage is to focus on the operations or areas that define your core business mission,” says Awad. “Determining what role IT plays in your competitive advantage can be difficult. Managing Web sites, e-mail applications and customer relationship management on your own may not actually be saving your company money.”